“According to the report, some 25,000 Ukrainian children had been brought into Israel over the past two years to be used by Israeli medical centers for their ‘spare parts.’ The Israeli military is also accused of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners.”

Press TV has made this heinous allegation at least three other times.

December 23, 2009: “An international Israeli conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs is gathering momentum…Israel has brought some 25,000 Ukrainian children into the occupied entity over the past two years in order to harvest their organs…[The children were] taken by Israeli medical centers, where they were used for ‘spare parts’….”

September 17, 2009: “Algerian kids falling prey to Jewish ‘organ harvest’….An international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs is gathering momentum….Bands of Moroccans and Algerians had been roaming the streets of Algerian cities in an attempt to hunt for young children. They then trafficked the kids across the border into neighboring Morocco. The children were then sold to Israelis and American Jews in Oujda, the capital of eastern Morocco, for the purpose of organ harvesting in Israel and the United States.”

September 9, 2009: “New reports have surfaced on the arrest of yet another Jewish organ trading gang in the United States involved in the abduction of Algerian children….New York city police have arrested members of a Jewish gang who abducted Algerian children for their organs…children in western Algeria were abducted and taken to Morocco to have their kidneys harvested. Their organs were later trafficked to the United States and Israel and sold for $20,000 to $100,000 each.”

For the record, Israel does appear to have an organ trafficking problem. This year alone, police have busted such operations in July, June, and April. Google News has a bunch of older stories as well. I don’t know whether Israel’s organ trafficking problems are greater than those of any other country. Sally Satel seem to think they are in an article she wrote on Slate.com, and suggested that there is a shortage of donated kindeys in Israel because of a widespread belief that donating organs is against halachah (Jewish religious law). She may be right.

But there is a tremendous difference between legitimate allegations that some Israelis purchase kidneys on the black market, and the claim that there is an international Jewish conspiracy to kidnap children and harvest their organs for use by Jews. If organ traffickers are like gangsters, organ harvesters are like vampires, or perhaps ghouls.

This claim that Jews kidnap children for their organs is all too familiar to people with knowledge of Jewish history. Anti-Semites have claimed that Jews kidnap and kill non-Jews for their blood, which is then allegedly used in Jewish rituals, since at least as early as the 12th century. This came to be known as the “blood libel.” Sometimes it was alleged that Jews used the blood as an ingredient in matzah (the unleavened bread eaten on Passover). Other purported Jewish uses for the blood were as a curative salve for the wound of circumcision or as an ingredient in black magic. In many cases these allegations became the basis for mob violence against Jews, and sometimes for the expulsion of entire Jewish communities. Blood libels were denounced by several Popes, who recognized that there was no truth in them. Jewish biblical law strictly forbids the consumption of blood (Leviticus 17:10-14). Jewish law also prohibits murder (Exodus 20:13), and mandates treating human bodies with respect. Using human blood in any way is simply unthinkable.